Secrets of the Street
Secrets of the Street is former Coronation Street actress Lynne Perrie's autobiography. In the book, the actress looked back at 50 years in movies, television and cabaret, and her 23 years as the Street's Ivy Brennan. She also revealed the story of her departure from the soap and the truth about her cosmetic surgery operations. Publication Lynne began work on the book shortly after she departed from Coronation Street in March 1994, and it was published in hardback on 1st October 1994, and in paperback on 26th May 1995, where Lynne provided a new foreword to discuss the controversy surrounding her memoir, and explaining what she had been doing over the past seven months. The official book launch was on 7th November, and Lynne travelled around the country to promote it, including a book signing tour, and guest slots on television chat shows and radio stations. The Sun newspaper, who described it as "The best book ever written about Britain's number one soap opera", serialised it's chapters, and Secrets of the Street received positive reviews from numerous other newspapers and magazines. The book became a best-seller in Britain. Controversy Although essentially a book about her life and career, Perrie's memoir apparently annoyed Granada Television bosses, who regarded the book as a "poison pen" production. The company wanted to protect the current cast members whom Lynne had written about, and attempted to ban its publication, resulting in Perrie having to go to the High Court of Justice in London on 29th September over an attempted injunction. Street insiders said that Lynne signed a contract with a clause forbidding her from making written or verbal attacks on colleagues. Her solicitor however, Robert Clinton said: "Our argument was that the clause was not binding after her employment had ceased. "The other key question was whether the information that would be in the book is 'confidential'." The book's publisher John Blake said: "Granada asked us to cut about 10 percent of the book but we refused point blank. The TV company has with drawn the action and we have cut out two very minor bits of the book." Lynne herself was quoted as saying: "My mouth has got me into big trouble - just like Ivy, But I'm not going to close my lips now. Here is my story. The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth." She maintained that she had tried to not to hurt anybody in the book, but she had to tell the truth. Granada were unsuccessful, and the book was published, billed as "The book they could not ban!". In his 1995 autobiography, Ken Morley who played Reg Holdsworth wrote: "When Granada tried to stop her warts-and all-book's publication, the whole cast was shocked. They dreaded Lynne exacting her revenge on them. Books had been written before and if they had that book banned where would the rest of us stand with tomes about our own lives? When they failed to stop it there was a sense of relief and many realised for the first time that TV company couldn't control them for ever. Some, whose secrets were revealed in the book, however, had a different view of things." Category:Books about Coronation Street